Man admits he hacked into USC's application system
(09-05) 22:06 PDT Los Angeles (AP) --A San Diego man was so upset that USC did not admit him as a student that he hacked into the school's application system and stole other would-be students' personal information, he admitted in court Tuesday.
Eric McCarty, 24, pleaded guilty to a felony count of accessing a protected computer without authorization and was scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 4. Under terms of a plea bargain with prosecutors, he is expected to receive six months of home detention and pay nearly $37,000 in restitution.
In June 2005, McCarty accessed Social Security numbers, names, addresses, dates of birth and applicants' passwords to the USC site, according to the government. Federal investigators found information on seven different people on McCarty's home computer, which they seized.
After the break-in, McCarty created a new e-mail account using the sign-on "ihackedusc. Prosecutors said he used that account to send messages explaining what he had done to a reporter at the Web site securityfocus.com. The reporter contacted university officials.
Authorities said McCarty also boasted and joked about his accomplishment on his blog.
Among the messages found on his blog: "USC Got Hacked" and "so all the hot USC girls, I got your phone number, ladies."
Honestly, why would you brag? If you were that smart to bypass the security and get information about others you should've known that it would be traced back to you.